# Historical movies that haven't been done yet, that you'd like to see **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 30, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899 "2010-04-30T20:43:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/41 "2010-05-01T17:12:10Z")
A biopic of [Willam Morgan Shuster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Shuster). quick pitch: 100 years ago, the Iranians were pawns in between Russia and Great Britian, and tried to organize a nation with a constitution and an efficient, honest central government. To do this they had to reform their customs collections and tax system. And to do this, they hired a team of American adminstrators. Of course, it all turned to shit. Imagine a movie that shows the Iranian seeing Americans as their best hope, and the concept of taxation as necessary for a country’s strength and autonomy. You’d have to hose off the ceiling in the theaters from the heads exploding. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/42 "2010-05-01T17:57:20Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > [Pompeii](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369838/) Yeah, that’s the hour-long BBC show I referenced in my post. It’s really good, but it’s still just a TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/43 "2010-05-01T19:05:21Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > A biopic of [Willam Morgan Shuster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Shuster). > > quick pitch: 100 years ago, the Iranians were pawns in between Russia and Great Britian, and tried to organize a nation with a constitution and an efficient, honest central government. To do this they had to reform their customs collections and tax system. And to do this, they hired a team of American adminstrators. Of course, it all turned to shit. > > Imagine a movie that shows the Iranian seeing Americans as their best hope, and the concept of taxation as necessary for a country’s strength and autonomy. You’d have to hose off the ceiling in the theaters from the heads exploding. Of course America is the best hope for Iranians..and for all freedom loving people in the world. And Americans do work from January 1st to April 9th to pay their taxes..more money than they spend on food, clothing and shelter. > **[Homepage](https://taxfoundation.org/)** > > Tax Foundation is the world's leading independent tax policy nonprofit. We lead the tax reform debate toward smarter simpler policy. Did your head explode learning the truth? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/44 "2010-05-01T19:25:44Z")
> [@Jim's Son](#): > > Of course America is the best hope for Iranians..and for all freedom loving people in the world. And Americans do work from January 1st to April 9th to pay their taxes.. […] > > Did your head explode learning the truth? Your comments aren’t really relevant to what **Slithy Tove** was talking about. He wasn’t saying that Americans don’t pay taxes or that improvement in Iranian/American relations wouldn’t be a good thing. Rather, he was saying that contemporary American moviegoers would be very startled to see a movie portraying Iranians as having a positive impression of Americans, and presenting state taxation in a positive light. See the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/45 "2010-05-01T19:47:05Z")
Thanks **Kimstu**. How about a movie shown in split-screen, both showing the same story, but one side entierly unencumbered of any irony? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/46 "2010-05-01T19:58:54Z")
> [@Martini Enfield](#): > > I’d also like to see a film (or better yet, a mini-series) about the Indian Mutiny of 1857 There’s the recent Hindi drama [_Mangal Pandey—The Rising_](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4145032.stm). And apparently there was a [1912 short film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366611/) on the subject, which might be an interesting curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/47 "2010-05-01T20:08:44Z")
> [@In Winnipeg](#): > > Subsequently, 2ndPPCLI was awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation for their actions during the Battle of Kapyong, the only time a Canadian unit has received such an award. Nitpick: Canada’s Joint Task Force 2 [was among the recipients of a US Presidential Unit Citation in 2004 awarded to the international Task Force K-BAR](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Unit_Citation_(United_States)#Operation_Iraqi_Freedom) for services in Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/48 "2010-05-01T20:22:25Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > Yeah, that’s the hour-long BBC show I referenced in my post. It’s really good, but it’s still just a TV show. See post #39 ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/49 "2010-05-01T20:59:51Z")
How about a movie about Gustavus Adolphus? For that matter, except for stuff in France, I don’t remember any movies about the 30 Years War except for “The Last Valley”. A movie about the Battle of Vicksburg would certainly show a different side of General Grant. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/50 "2010-05-01T21:16:19Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Xenophon’s “march of the 10,000” [Done.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warriors_%28film%29)😉 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/51 "2010-05-01T21:21:44Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Something with President James K Polk.. a “dark horse” candidate who became President, the whole thing with fighting the Mexican War while trying not to make heroes out of Whig generals such as Zachary “Old Rough and Ready” Taylor and Winfield “Old Fuss and Feathers” Scott. Many Whigs voted for the war keeping in mind that 30 years earlier the Federalist party went out of business by opposing the War of 1812, one of them remarking he was now in favor of famine and pestilence too. Scott’s campaign to conquer Mexico City was at first denounced by the Duke of Wellington but later he declared it the most brilliant in history. The peace negotiations of Nicholas Trist. Many future Civil War people such as Robert E Lee, Ulysses Grant, Jefferson Davis made appearances. The various machinations of Santa Anna. It should also highlight the little-remembered fact that the Mexican-American War was mainly a Southern project, out of which the Southerners hoped to form new slave states out West and maintain the free-slave balance in the U.S. Senate; a hope in which they were frustrated, leading to the Civil War, in which the Confederacy tried to seize control of the West in the [New Mexico Campaign](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_Campaign) (the only cinematic treatment of which to date, AFAIK, was in [_The Good, the Bad and the Ugly._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good,_the_Bad_and_the_Ugly)). Also, I’ve never seen a movie involving the [Knights of the Golden Circles’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_golden_circle) project to form new U.S. slave states out of territories in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/52 "2010-05-01T21:32:15Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > I always wonder just how Cortez and a couple hundred men were able to conquer Montezuma and the Aztec nation. I know the usual explanations: smallpox, alliances with other natives who hated the Aztecs, guns, horses. But there was a certain toughness they had too. There was a picture in the late 1940s “Captain from Castile” that starred Tyrone Power but The Joker, Cesare Romero, stole the show as Cortez. In ends with the Spaniards on the march, filmed on the actual locations and I wish they had made a sequel. The story is told in stunning brief in [_The City in Mind,_](http://www.amazon.com/City-Mind-Notes-Urban-Condition/dp/0684845911) by James Howard Kunstler, chapter on Mexico City. Also in Larry Gonick’s _Cartoon History of the Modern World I._ And fictionalized, from the Aztec POV, in [_Aztec,_](http://www.amazon.com/Aztec-Gary-Jennings/dp/0765317508/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272749607&sr=1-1) by Gary Jennings (caveat lector: A **very** bloody book!). ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/53 "2010-05-01T21:34:50Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > The Funeral Games that followed Alexander the Great’s death could make a cool miniseries, sort of along the lines of The Tudors or Rome. And we already have an excellent [script source](http://www.amazon.com/Funeral-Games-Mary-Renault/dp/0375714197). My favorite Renault book. In her afterward ( I think ) she mentions another excellent topic - the staccato, careening career of [Demetrios Poliorcetes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_I_of_Macedon). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/54 "2010-05-01T21:36:02Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Of course America is the best hope for Iranians.. :dubious: Like we wuz for the Iraqis? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/55 "2010-05-01T21:41:36Z")
I’d still like to see a full-length movie based on “Isaac’s Storm”, about the great Galveston hurricane of 1900. There were vignettes shot for a documentary series on TV, but that was just a small glimpse of the possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/56 "2010-05-01T21:41:54Z")
_To late for edit._ Or for that matter the career of Pyrrhus of Epirus. That whole period is bursting with interesting characters and possibly apocryphal but highly entertaining anecdotes. Like Hannibal’s use of catapulted poison vipers in clay pots to win a naval engagement in his later, post-Carthaginian career as a mercenary commander. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/57 "2010-05-01T21:49:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Let’s have some Commie stuff! I don’t think there’s ever been a Hollywood movie about the [Paris Commune,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune) short-lived as it was; nor any about the [Spanish Civil War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_civil_war) that wasn’t based on Hemingway. Pan’s Labyrinth, La lengua de las mariposas and Belle Epoque are all set in the Civil War and have plot elements derived from the conflict. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/58 "2010-05-01T21:53:32Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > As a martial arts fan, there’s a couple I would really like to see on screen: > > 1. Medieval martial arts: a couple of theorists today have imagined that knights did not fight the way we think they did. The weapons and armor indicate a much faster fighting form similar to kung fu. They think that fighting in the middle ages was very similar to what we think the Three Musketeers fought like. I saw some Medieval armor today, including both suits of armor and two-handed long swords. Unless they’re Super Heroes no way anyone was swinging those around fast. One of the suits of armor weighs 50 kilograms. The two handed swords were at least 1.5 meters long. They also had a “blunderbuss”. It took two men to handle it and I think they said it could be fired up to two times an hour. This was stuff in a German castle, maybe in England or elsewhere it was different. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/59 "2010-05-01T22:24:26Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > For myself, I’d like to see a real brutal Viking movie, one that is mostly historically accurate (with the authentic language and whatnot), but also includes some things from our pop cultural image of the Vikings (horned helmets, mead mugs fashioned out of human skulls, beards, etc), and that doesn’t include any fantasy elements I would definitely watch that movie. > [@](#): > > I hear Mel Gibson is making one, but I also heard Leonardo Dicaprio is going to be it… I liked _Gangs of New York_ and _The Departed_. If he grew a real beard for it, I would probably watch that movie. * * * > [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > How about a movie about Gustavus Adolphus? Yes, **yes, YES**. Gustavus Adolphus is my favorite non-viking historical figure (what can I say, Scandinavians are awesome). ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/60 "2010-05-01T22:51:56Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I saw some Medieval armor today, including both suits of armor and two-handed long swords. Unless they’re Super Heroes no way anyone was swinging those around fast. One of the suits of armor weighs 50 kilograms. That would be unusually heavy for battle-armor, even full plate. Quality steel plate at least was usually half that and well-distributed on the body. Pretty similar to full kit for a modern soldier and better distributed at that. Later armor like plate was actually rather more agile than earlier stuff like chain mail. More likely if that weight was accurate, it was either just a fancy showpiece or specially designed jousting armor, which was more massive stuff never meant for combat. > [@](#): > > The two handed swords were at least 1.5 meters long. Size didn’t necessarily make them slow. More it depends how it was used. While wide swings might be slowish compared to a saber, often large blades like that ( depending on the period ) were wielded [“half-sword”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-sword). Fighting by two guys in plate armor with longswords often more closely resembled two crabs trying to peel each other out of their shell. Really after the High Middle Ages most longswords depended much more on point than edge and probably weren’t swung freely in big arcs all that much, except maybe against unarmored opponents. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899.md?page=4)